On April 18, Oley Valley High School seniors Sarah Kane and Nicole Snyder signed their national letters-of-intent to play their respective sports at the Division Two level. Kane will be participating in track and field at Kutztown University, while Snyder will play field hockey at East Stroudsburg University.

Also recognized were Megan McClellan, Alexus Kolb, Garett Pelko and Collin Moyer who are playing their respective sports at the Division 3 schools.

Snyder was looking at schools that best fitted her academic needs, then looked at the field hockey program. She will major in hotel/restaurant management and tourism.

For Kane, it was pretty much the same thing - academics came first. But she did want to go to a school with a good track and field program. She contacted several coaches to see what their track and field program was like, and see what they expected of their throwers. She will major in graphic design.

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Kane attends Berks-Vo Tech and is in graphic design program, where she has been for the past three years. She wants to continue in that field in college.

Snyder chose Hotel/Restaurant tourism major because it was something new and interesting for her, and wanted to learn more about it.

Both athletes will admit that this process of choosing a college) was harder than they thought, but Kane noted that many times it came down to academics or track. “They had a good track team, but not my major,” said Kane. “I had to choose between my program and what track team I wanted to be on. Kutztown had two amazing fits for me.”

There were several things that drew Nicole to East Stroudsburg. “I like how small it was, and everyone seemed very nice,” said Snyder. “The coaches were really nice and they helped me out a lot.”

Snyder was invited to come watch the team play, so she could get the feel of what a game is like at the college level. “They came and watched my games. Even if I had a bad game they were very supportive,” said Snyder.

Snyder met some of her future teammates, but not everyone on the team. She mostly spoke with the coaches. Nicole attended clinics and got to meet some of the other recruits going to East Stroudsburg. “They were really excited to be there as much as I was,” said Snyder.

Kane hasn’t met any of her future college teammates yet, but she is planning on attending a few of their meets this spring. She is hoping to meet them while she’s there.

The jump from high school to college athletics is a big one,especially coming from a small school like Oley. But Nicole is very excited about the jump.

“College is going to be a new start,” said Snyder. “I can’t wait.”

Kane isn’t nervous about the jump from high school to college athletics. “I’m more excited,” said Kane. “I can’t wait to start throwing at the collegiate level. That’s what I’ve wanted to do for the past three to four years. I feel that I can only get better with the training that they’re going to give me. So, I’m looking forward to that.”

Snyder and Kane are hoping to be able to contribute to her new team next year as freshmen. Sarah is going to train during the summer to help her prepare for college, hopefully enough to get some playing time.

In Kane’s situation, it’s the person with the best time or the best that determines who’s in the line-up. If she’s able to out throw the others in practice, she will throw for points during the regular track meet next year.

Both girls have had nothing but success at the high school level and feel they are ready for the next step.